STRONG ASTROLOGY DEFINES ‘WEEK’ IN ALL LANGUAGES

Without why? What? And how? Our lives would be unimaginative, dull and passive like inanimate objects.It is not only in questioning but exploring to seek the answers for these why? What? And how? Whatever source they emanate from and in all possible ways, is what educates and emancipates mankind.In this process of enquiry, we must steer clear of impenetrable jargons, lukewarm sea of half-baked theories, the illusion that life and its meanings and problems can be reduced to some specific straight-jacket dogma, and delusions of fettering axiomatic certitudes like something is said to be so and therefore, it is so; and a whole lot of other such aspects of the culture of escapism, and indifference and lies.

Of these ubiquitous trinity of why? What? and how?

Let me take up only why here. Why is a magical word. Small children use it to keep their parents talking on and on without end. Unfortunately, it is not only to keep their parents talking but also out of inquisitiveness.

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Inquisitiveness is what produces a wide range of characters starting from an eavesdropper, a scandal monger or a clandestine voyeur or a gossip giant or a spiritual mediator or a social inventor, etc. So the type of reply a parent gives to a child’s enquiry of a why? (out of inquisitiveness) will produce such a “deep” impression that, the child’s mind would start using the question why to get a particular expected answer and also produce any of the above referred characters depending upon the parent’s reply.

Very often parents tend to give clever replies like a tourist guide who, when once, a lady asked him “How a row of fine rock formation were piled up”, said “they have been piled up here by the glaciers”. When she anxiously asked him “Where are the glaciers?” he replied “Madam, they have gone back to get some more rocks”. Such replies are often the result of ignorance, half-knowledge or impatience or all of these.

I, for one, would rather like to go to the maximum extent possible to find the answer for all the whys that arise in me. Thus I was haunted by two whys. One, why in all the languages from the very, ancient ones, which originated several hundred years back to the latest ones the days of the week are named after the planets, the sun and moon? And two, how come that in all these languages they (the days) follow the same sequence, i.e. Sunday followed by Monday, Tuesday, and so on.

It is obvious that the various languages which have evolved in different periods and in different places could not have been manipulated by any vested interest group. In fact the greatest and most unique aspect about languages is that they have been stronger than everything, including we human beings, by virtue of not succumbing to any ideologically inspired homogenization mania. That’s why words carry with them or contain in them either a truth, a concept, a belief, a social system, a theory etc., in short, they carry the best imprint of life in this universe than any account of history or scriptural claims. This is the reason that besides their semantic influence languages also have their own self- justification and it is for this reason I am always driven by an impulse to get to the bottom of things to understand by unraveling the mystery of certain words.

Thus, even in this present enquiry, as a polyglot, I am proceeding to analyze the question, by studying the words that form part of the question.

1. Languages - its greatness2. Day - its etymology, origin and duration.3. Week - its duration why only seven days? and why not 5 days or 10 days?4. Names of planets, basic facts about planets and their name forthe days.5. The mystery of same sequence of days in all languages.

Having explained in brief what languages means in a wider perspective, I am proceeding to the other four aspects.

The word day in English and taq in German are etymologically from the Indo-European, ‘dhegh’ which also gave the Sanskirit ‘dah’ ‘burn’ and ‘nidaqha’ ‘heat and this leads us to infer that the word day denotes the ‘time’ when the ‘sunlight is hot’ or ‘time of burning heat’.

The origin of day and its duration:-Time, we all know, is not linear but cyclic, an unending repetition of events, and though it is infinite, Human beings’ intelligence felt the need and found the rhythms to break time into convenient periods to measure and give temporal meaning to activities. Thus when the human mind was observing nature, the circadian (circa dien LATIN almost 24 hours ) cycle came to light and the length of the day was determined by the period taken by the earth to spin once around its axis.

So the origin and duration of the day is based on earth’s spin, still no day is named after the earth. They are named only after the planets, the Sun and the Moon, because of their influence astrologically on earth. So whatever the critics of the science of astrology say still it has left an indeliable mark in the names of the days of the week. Influence of astrology is so strong that even the Guinness Book of Poisonous quotations says “Anybody who believes in astrology must have been born under the wrong sign.”

Week- Its etimology and duration:-

Week- This word has evolved from a prehistoric Indo-European ‘wikon’ which gave the German ‘woche’ from the base ‘wik’ – meaning ‘ Bend or turn or change’ probably denoting change with specific reference to change of phase of the moon.

What would have gone into deciding the duration of the week. The best possible explanation is traditional belief in septenary (seven) factor and observation which confirms and strengthens this traditional belief.

Septenary factor is so strong that in spite of the millions of sins [ we all know are being committed everywhere] the basic sins are ‘seven sins’. This apart, in reality aren’t basic colours unfolded by the spectroscope seven; the basic music notes seven; basic wonders of the world seven; basic senses of man seven; (besides the five senses, the mind and the intellect included) the seven holes in the face – two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and one mouth – which allow the seven adhyatmapranas (vital airs) to the soul within,the seven endocrine glands (glands whose secretions do not pass through any ducts but pour directly into the bloodstream as it circulates through the glands – the pineal, the gonads);the seven corresponding chakras or plexus (network in Hindu esotericism).

Dr. Laycock (Lancet 1842-43) writing on the periodicity of vital phenomena records. “The facts I have briefly glanced at are general facts, and cannot happen day after day in so many millions of animals of every kind from the larva or ovum of a minute insect up to a man, at definite periods , from a mere chance or coincidence…… I think it is impossible to come to any less general conclusion ,than this, that in animals, changes occur every three and a half, seven, fourteen , twenty one or twenty eight days or at some definite number of weeks or septenary cycles” and “whatever type the fever may exhibit there will be a paroxysm on the seventh day, the fourteenth will be remarkable as the day of amendment (either cure or death taking place !)

The cyclothymic rhythm is said to alternate at 35 days intervals – so that one’s emotions vary in a curve that rises to a peak every 5 weeks resulting in alternating periods of depression and exhilaration .Every 42 days, there appears to be an intellectual rhythm affecting one’s grasp of practical things, concentration and memory. Traditionally it was believed that every seven years the human being passed through certain life phases like till 7 a child, attends puberty at 14 , is an adult at 21, house holder at 28, acquires proficiency in his profession at 35, a public figure at 42 and ready for the end by 63 or 70 etc.

Well then it is only normal that tradition chose seven days for the week, probably on the undocumented observation of bio and astrobiotic rhythms.

In fact the French Revolutionists, tried to rid the astrological connotations of seven day week and came up with a convenient metric system of the ‘ New Revolutionary Calendar’ and it was introduced by official decree on 24th November 1793 wherein each month was divided into three (3) 10 day cycles called decades, with the names of ten days as primidi, durdi, tridi, quartidi, quintidi, sextidi, septidi, octidi, nonidi, decadi. And it was the practical Napolean who officially reinstated the seven day week in September, 1805 after officially recognizing the failure of ‘decades’.

Then Stalin tried a five-day week formula with four days work and one day rest, wherein the rest days were staggered throughout the population to ensure that factory production went uninterrupted and it was labeled as “uninterrupted production week’ and introduced in 1929 but withdrawn by 1931 and Stalin had to revert to the 7 day week.

Can anyone stifle popular beliefs and astrology?

Unfortunately, there is pseudo-intellectual tendency among humanity at large to mock at all traditional beliefs and ancient sciences because of human beings inadequate tools of empirical verifiability.

But instead if we make an unbiased observation into many traditional beliefs, then we can know how our ancestors with very limited equipments and even without any gadget have managed to make some far-reaching observations. There are evidences of incised reindeer bones dating back some 20 to 21 thousand years wherein theCro-Magnon humans tabulated the phases of the moon, a pointer to our ancestor’s science of ‘astrobiology’. All beliefs to have wider following and acceptability were sugar coated with religious and ritualistic do’s and don’ts, even as we need at present, some political backing or populist ideology or a corporate sponsorship for anything to have wider following and acceptability.

So whether the astronomers find any cause to believe in the links of planets and human beings; whatever various religions try to do (this aspect we shall discuss in the following passages); however much political pressures have tried to subdue it , the traditional belief in septenary (seven) factor and astrology have left an indelible imprint on humanity by ensuring that all over the world the days of the week are seven and they (days) are named after the planets and in a specific sequence. Now we need to find out how and why it is so.

Brief astronomical facts about the planets, the sun and moon:

Jupiter-the largest planet –fifth in order from sun-mean distance from the sun is 483,000,000 miles.

Saturn -the second largest planet –sixth in order from sun, mean distance from the sun ,mean distance from the sun is 886,000,000 miles.

Venus -the second in order from the sun-mean distance from the sun is 67,000,000 miles.

Mars -the fourth in order from the sun- mean distance from the sun is 142,000,000 miles.

Mercury -the nearest planet to the sun and the mean distance from the sun is 36,000,000 miles.

Sun -the star that is the central body of the solar system and its mean distance from the earth is about 73,000,000 miles.

From this information, it is clear that the order of the days have not been based on any of these astronomical factors like size, mean distance from the sun or earth. Then, what possibly influenced the sequence of the days?

In the realm of languages, the word for the days in all Indian languages are based on Sun, moon and five major planets- i.e. Ravi or Surya (Sun) , Soma or Chandra (Moon), Mangala or Kuja or Angaraha (Mars), Budha (Mercury), Guru or Brahaspati (Jupiter), Sukra (Venus), Sani (Saturn) and in some other major languages that I know it is:

Some words for some of the days have been underlined. These do not give any reference to the planets why? And this is where I decided to read the history and religious influences behind them.

First, I went through the Hebrew versions. In fact, for Hebrew, YAHWEN was engaged in creation for 6 days and then rested on the seventh. The word ‘ Sabbath’ is derived from “Shabatath” meaning ‘to cease from work’ and the Hebrew name for Saturn is interestingly ‘shabati’. Probably Saturday was the first day of the week. We shall discuss this when we discuss how astrology has taken the most relevant astronomical factor and influenced the sequence for days and how?

Well the underlined names are the result of what Christianity tried to do; it wanted the days of the week to be dissociated from their pagan origins. In fact the first day of the week was named by early Christians as “The Lord’s Day”. Latin translates this as ‘ Die Dominicia’; French retain it as Dimanche ; in Russian, Sunday is ‘Resurrection Day (VOSKRESENIE).

Tuesday:- from Tiu or Tiy or Tyr in Scandinavian mythology son of Odin and identified ultimately with the German Zeus, Latin Deus and Sanskirit Devas.

Wednesday:- from Anglo-saxon Woden’s day or Scandinavian Odin’s day-the God of Wisdom, poetry and agriculture.

Thursday:- the day of God Thur- God of thunder and the French call it ‘Jeudi’ that is Jove’s Day. Both Jove and Thor were Gods of thunder and formerly Thursday was sometimes called Thunder Day.

Whatever and however much pressure has been put to change the names of days from tht of planets, yet there is a particular astrological and astronomical factor that has ensured the specific sequence of days . So we need to know what it is and how it is so?

We are living beings on earth. So everything is connected with earth, therefore the length for the day (24 hours approximate) is determined by the period taken by earth to spin once upon its axis.

Then going further into astronomy, the most important astronomical factor is that all planets are orbiting. The speed of the planets in relation to the orbital periods when viewed from earth are approximately in ascending order (the faster the movement, the shorter the orbital period) as follows:-Moon 27 daysMercury 88 daysVenus 225 daysSun 365 daysMars 687 daysJupiter 12 daysSaturn 30 days

This has been the major factor that determined the sequence of the days. But then, isn’t it logical that the days should be Monday followed by Wednesday, Friday etc. or the reverse in descending order as Saturday followed by Thursday, Tuesday, etc. It is not so. Again Why?

Well, the answer is, as per the astrological doctrines of ‘chronocracies’ practiced in Alexandria, each hour of the day was assigned to one of the seven planetary gods and the day was named based on the god that governed the first hour of the day. Initially it was in descending order of the orbital period and as such the first hour of the first day was assigned to other planets in the descending order of the orbital period (Hebrew ‘Shabtai’ for ‘Saturn’ and ‘Sabbath’- the rest day). Thus if we tabulate the 24 hour period, we get Saturday followed by Sunday followed by Mondday, etc. as per the following chart.

As per the Babylonian sequence of planetary days, Saturday was the first day. The choice of any day as the first day of the week is of course a matter of convenience and perhaps accepted practice but the sequence is the same.

So in no way and on no day can any one avoid astrology. No wonder, even a skeptical a historian of astrology like Ellic Home (1967), in his work ‘Urania’s Children’- the strange world of the astrologers said “ a good astrologer can produce results of astounding accuracy.”